AN ancient cannon dating back to the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) has been found at a land fill near Shenzhen Bay, local Chinese-language newspapers reported yesterday.

The bronze cannon, weighing about 38 kilograms, is the first of its kind found in the city. Experts at Shenzhen's center for the study of archaeology said it was not made by the then Qing government, but by local villagers to ward off bandits. It added more information for people to learn about Shenzhen's history 400 years ago, archaeologists said.

Qi Xiaofei, an employee with the company contracted with the land fill project, said he found the cannon while trying to sort useful items from the dump with a metal detector March 15.

It is 54 centimeters in length with a barrel diameter of eight centimeters.

Qi took the cannon to the archaeological center where experts checked its shape and raw material elements. Archaeologist Zhang Yibin said the cannon was substandard compared with weapons illustrated in history books, which suggested that it might have been made by local villagers. It was quite common for local villagers to set up home-made cannons to guard their villages from invasions by armed bandits or pirates, Zhang said.

Based on previous findings, the archaeologists suggested the cannon might have been part of the defense facilities in Nantou.

Qi donated the cannon to the archaeological center for further studies.

Meanwhile, experts at the center said they were worried that the fast development in the city might end in the destruction of more cultural relics.

"In some cases, an ancient building was demolished while we were trying to identify its cultural value," said Zhang. "We've found five ancient blockhouses in Yantian District in the 1990s, but only four were left in 2000. According to Yantian's development plan, none will be left in 2010," the archaeologist said.

Zhang and other experts are conducting the city's third survey of culture relics and hope more residents can join them in protecting relics.

(Windy Shao)